


Magic in the Air Tonight

by therune



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-31
Updated: 2015-01-31
Packaged: 2018-03-09 21:45:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3265457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/therune/pseuds/therune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Rogues have a gathering and James has a very important secret to tell Piper. And it's just magical!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Magic in the Air Tonight

One night when they were hanging out, drinking beer, playing poker and subsequently stopped playing poker, because James - who was not allowed to join into any gambling anymore because he cheated at everything from poker to Hungry Hungry Hippo- had gotten bored and was pointing out whenever one of the actual players was cheating and Mick had set fire more or less accidentally to the cards in the resulting brawl, they were bonding over beer. Or well, getting drunk and spilling information and secrets they wouldn't have been comfortable sharing with anyone who wasn't a friend.   
"How come basically no one besides me ever did time? It's unfair, really," Sam said and slurred his words.   
"I thought you had your breakthrough with mirrors in prison," Mick intervened.   
"Yeah, I know, wouldn't have happened otherwise, but it's the principle. You, You've pulled at least as much shit as I did, when not more."  
"I was in juvie, and real jail," Mark offered as a consolation, "broke out though."  
"See? Mark's a teamplayer," Sam gestured wildly with his beer can and the drink sloshed out, "he gets me."  
Mark snorted and went back to experimenting if he could part ketchup like Moses part the red sea. It didn't work, of course, but then someone - and everyone would bet money on who this someone had been - had switched out the weather wand with a straw. Mark was too drunk to notice.   
"I did time," Len remarked, almost offended at being left out, "what about you, kid?" He pointed vaguely in one direction. But since James and Piper were sitting there (next to Digger who was probably the oldest so the 'kid' hadn't referred to him. Possibly.) and they weren't sure which one he meant, they didn't answer.   
While Piper had spent two hours in a cell once, his father's connection had gotten him out without any record of that event, he felt it best not to mention that. Also, a failed joyride with his father's favourite Aston Martin was not the way he wanted the Rogues to remember him.   
"Isn't that a bit stupid," James asked and turned to face Piper, "like they're proud of having been caught."   
Luckily for him, Mick began to regale the others with the story of how he almost burned down an aquarium accidentally and the others weren't listening to them.   
"I think it's like a badge of honour, to prove that they're badass."  
"Huh. I have never spent time in the slammer, and you kid?"  
"Kid? I'm older than you!" Piper was beginning to gear up to his speech about being underestimated - which he had held three times already to the stubborn Rogues - when he noticed the glint in James' eyes and the smirk. "You're messing with me."  
"Of course, that's my default setting."  
Piper fished more cans from the sixpack and offered one to James. "Do you come in other settings as well?"  
"Wreaking havoc and sleep, probably."   
James winked. Or at least Piper thought he did and chalked that impression up to this being his 4th can.   
"Can I tell you a secret?" James asked suddenly and leant over to Piper. He continued before Piper could say no or yes. "The first time I saw you with your pipes, I thought it was magic."  
"Uh...thanks?" Piper tried. James really was stupidly handsome and him getting closer and closer with Piper buzzed from the alcohol proved to be a dangerous combination. He'd be thinking about his blue eyes or his handsome smile next and - too late. Piper took a sip and willed the thoughts from his head.  
"You led those policemen away like a weird conga line. Like you stepped right out of the pages of a fairytale. You know, for a while I thought that you were the actual Pied Piper."  
"Really?"  
"Yeah," James cocked his head and smiled, "magical, as I said."  
"I'm sorry to disappoint you," Piper began, "regular sonic hypnosis. Applied physics and nothing more."   
Typical. Best thing of his life and he felt like it wasn't good enough. He told himself to snap out of the drunken regret. What was he feeling bad about? Being a genius? No, he was brilliant and he deserved recognition.   
"I noticed," James answered. "Fairly genius, really. You're really smart, I just thought....nevermind." He started to turn away and in Piper's drunken hazy mind, that was unacceptable.   
"Wait," he started and only noticed then that it was his hand on James' shoulder, stopping him. "What do you mean?"  
"Nothing, really."  
"Please," Piper said softly and James looked into his eyes. They really were really, really....blue.   
"Okay, but only because it's you," James conceded. He dragged his chair even closer and now their knees touched. Leaning forward, he put his hands on Piper's armrests, leaning closer still. "I have a secret."  
Piper was close to fidgeting, unsure what to do with his hands. "Yes?"   
Quickly, James turned his head to look at the others. Mick was on a table, acting out the story in full detail. From the looks of it, he was at the part where an electrical fault near the squid tanks had caused a nearby curtain to burst into flames. No one was paying any attention to them. Digger had fallen asleep on his chair, his almost full beer can having dropped from his slack grip.   
"Okay," he was whispering, "promise not to tell anyone."  
"Of course,"Piper replied, ready to promise anything.  
"I use magic," James said quickly, like forcing the words out of his mouth before he could regret them.   
Piper was silent. In his mind, he saw James at the museum job last month, dancing in the air. Remembered the colourful explosions and how unfaced James seemed to be at anything thrown at him, from the cops to the Flash. Always ready with a taunt and a smile.   
"Wow," Piper exclaimed, "just...wow."  
"I know, right?" The grin he had just seen in his mind appeared on James' face.   
"Are you," Piper gestured, not sure himself what he meant to portray, "a magician? With spells and a cauldron and a cat and a bat and-"  
James laughed softly. He shook his head and stopped Piper with a finger held to his lips. "Nothing like that. I use a certain...magical item. It gives me my powers."  
Immediately Piper thought of magical rings, an amulet, perhaps. A chant that turned regular James into the Trickster.   
"Wow."  
"You just said that," James remarked smiling. He looked happy, almost relieved, sharing his secret with someone. Piper felt honored.   
"How...what... How did that happen?"  
James rested his face on his palms, elbows resting on his knees. "My whole family was in the circus business. Me and my parents were aerialists, Flying Jesses." Piper knew, he had seen the posters and remembered what James had told them all on their first inofficial get-together, "but we're gypsies, really. My grandma did the whole schtick at the circus, fortune telling, palm reading, crystal balls and whatnot. She was good, really. Had all sorts of mystical stuff I wasn't allowed to touch. Most of it was for show, stuff to draw in the crowds, but a few of them were real .Her crystall ball was real. So was sadly the necklace from human teeth. And, last but not least," he leant closer, "the pants."  
Piper sobered up in an instant.   
"You're messing with me."  
"Hey! Do you think I'd be wearing them if I didn't have to?" James looked positively offended. "I know they look silly, but whatever gets the job done."  
Piper was highly sceptical. It would explain a lot, really, but.  
"No, default setting, remember? I don't believe a single word of that story."  
"Not even the part about my grandma? My nonna?"  
"Not. one. word."  
"Damn shame!" James threw his head back and laughed. "I almost had you, didn't I?"  
"No, James."  
"Come on, I saw it, I was close."  
"Fine," Piper grinned and held up his fingers to indicate a small distance, "you were so close, okay?"  
James winked, and this time Piper was sure that it wasn't a drunken fantasy.   
"What was the tipping point?"  
"The pants really. First, you love those horrid things to bits - I've seen you get pizza in those - and we all have the same tailor. That would never hold."  
"Do you think it would be more convincing if I said that Gambi was a sorcerer?"  
"Let it go, JJ," Piper said fondly, "find something else to trick people with."  
He took a sip again and focused his attention back to the others.   
For reasons unknown, Sam was on the table now, the others watching with rapt attention as he acted out what might have been a movie he saw last week or trying to mime a very complex phrase for a game of charades that no one but him was playing.   
"Would people believe magical socks?"   
Piper laughed and patted James' cheek, midly surprised by his drunken bravery, "no. No one believes anything you say."  
And James didn't even have the decency to look in the least bit bothered by this. They both grinned and clinked their cans together.


End file.
